Who Are the White Men Stirring Up Trouble in Guinea?

Identity-based conflicts tend to be rather nasty. There's something about a person's identity that makes "the other" seem more dangerous -- and this is all too often putty in the manipulative hands of power-hungry autocrats.

Continuing with last night's theme of "things to be worried about," an increasing chorus of international voices is raising the alarm over the West African nation of Guinea, which has become increasingly unstable over the past several months, and in particular since an assassination attempt against the leader of its military junta earlier this month.

The use of identity to mobilize protection and support seemed to parallel the rising paranoia of the leader, Captain Moussa "Dadis" Camara, who is from the minority Guerze ethnic group in Guinea. Before being shot in the head by one of his close advisers, he was rumored to be training ethnic militias; during a brutal crackdown on protesters in September, the presidential guard, also mostly from Camara's ethnic group, yelled, ""We will exterminate the Peul," a group that makes up 40% of the country's population. Troubling language, indeed.

But one of the most intriguing elements of the training of the militia are the identities of the trainers --reportedly, white men of unknown affiliation and national origin:

Local residents said the foreign trainers were staying at the Hotel Bafila in Forecariah. On a recent evening, about a dozen white men were inside the hotel's restaurant, speaking English and two other languages which sounded like Hebrew and Afrikaans. Several wore black T-shirts that said "Instructor" on the back.

When an AP reporter asked for a room, the hotel staff went to find a white man with short gray hair in an instructor T-shirt. He placed what looked like a canister of mace on the table in front of the reporter, tapped it and asked if she had taken any photographs, which he said was forbidden.

It's always good to know that the world has no shortage of people notably lacking in the morals department. Who are these mysterious, burly white mercenaries who are sowing the seeds of what could be the destabilization of a region that has only known a few years of peace?

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which played a major role in peacekeeping in Liberia and Sierra Leone, along with partners including the United States, is weighing the possibility to military intervention to prevent the escalation to open conflict. Guinea's beleaguered junta declared that such an intervention would be a violation of international law, though their understanding of the law seems a bit misguided -- if Guinea is on its way to throwing the entire region into chaos, then ECOWAS is well within its rights to intervene. It's a little thing called the Responsibility to Protect.

I hope they keep a special eye out for white men in black "instructor" shirts.